Leaders of Two Koreas Meet as Summit Starts in DMZ

Something truly historic has begun Friday morning in the truce village of Panmunjom, in the Korean demilitarized zone. The leaders of the two Koreas, Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in met in the morning to start a much anticipated summit.

From talks surrounding the Winter Olympics, a lot has happened. North Korea managed to secure summits with both South Korea and the United States, has hosted a sizeable South Korean delegation in Pyongyang, and made substantial confidence-building measures.

Only so much can be accomplished in a single day, but the possibilities are promising. All signs are that quite a bit can be accomplished, with expectations that the groundwork is being laid for a deal to end the Korean War, which began in 1950. Beyond that, South Korea is also hoping to get the ball rolling on denuclearization, and a deal between the North and the United States.

The video of them crossing and recrossing the demarcation line was powerful. Sorry, Trump, if you had a hand in this, it was only as the bull in the china shop that scared them both into making peace. No Nobel Peace Prize for you, big guy, only for them.

It is a simple fact that the two Koreas never got this far down the path of negotiation toward peace until Trump showed up and started yelling about fire and fury and stuff.

Was this outcome his intention? Was he playing 4D chess or whatever? I don’t know, but if it all works out American mythology will add it to the list of stuff like “Nixon went to China,” “Reagan brought down the Soviet Union,” etc.

With all due respect Thomas, there is a certain naiveté in your words.

Might other countries and their peoples hear us better if we did not threaten ‘fire and fury’? Wouldn’t they respect us more if we
led by example and not with the threat of the sword (in modern parlance: bombs)?

At the end of the day, the US does what it does for its own reasons and has no regard for anyones rights, not their sovereignty, their culture and heritage and most certainly not their right to life…

Trump did not make this happened between N. & S. Korea, they, North and South, made it happen.

For Trump to be gloating on his tweets today about how “proud, Great, Americans” should feel about this accomplishment is enough to make me physically ill.

The inconsistencies in US Foreign Policy are glaring: friends with Israel (abusive occupiers…), the Saudis (indiscriminate murders and oppressors) and on and on…

It will be curious to see how Trump & Company play this next card, with regard to the Koreas and it is anyone’s guess what the outcome will be.

I’m saying that if it works out, Americans will give Trump credit for it.

The naivete isn’t mine, it’s most Americans’. We tend to think everything is about us. If something good happens, it’s because we caused it. If something bad happens it’s because THEY hate our FREEDUMB.

The problem with this kind of diplomacy working is that a simpleton like Trump will think it is the cure all to our other diplomatic crisis that is the JCPOA. He’s just recently threatened Iran with similar talk that he used against NK.